Valley Yarns Chapel Falls Shawl Knitting Pattern

Valley Yarns Chapel Falls Shawl

What Is Being Made

The Chapel Falls Shawl is a long, elegant knitted shawl designed by Kirsten Hipsky. This garment measures 18 inches wide by 72 inches long when finished, making it a generous accessory suitable for draping around the shoulders or wearing as a lightweight wrap. The shawl showcases a beautiful interplay of color and texture, featuring subtle, unequal stripes that build throughout the project and culminate in a dramatic block of solid color at the end.

Techniques Used

This shawl employs several key knitting techniques that make it an ideal project for advanced beginners looking to expand their skill set:

• Lace knitting: The shawl features an easy, scalloping lace stitch pattern that creates an open, airy fabric. This technique involves strategic yarn overs and decreases to form decorative holes and textured elements.
• Two-color knitting: The pattern incorporates stripes by carrying two colors up the sides of the work. To prevent long floats of yarn, the first stitch of every right-side row is knit with both colors held together, creating a secure edge while transitioning between hues.
• Flat knitting: The shawl is worked flat on straight needles rather than in the round, allowing for straightforward row-by-row construction with clear right-side and wrong-side rows.

Stitches Used

The Chapel Falls Shawl relies on fundamental knitting stitches combined in a repeating pattern:

• Knit stitch (k): The basic foundation stitch used throughout the shawl.
• Purl stitch (p): Used on wrong-side rows to create smooth, even fabric between pattern rows.
• Yarn over (yo): Creates the decorative eyelets and openwork characteristic of the lace pattern.
• Centered double decrease (sl1-k2tog-psso): A slip 1 stitch as if to knit, knit 2 together, pass the slipped stitch over the k2tog. This decrease is paired with yarn overs to form the scalloping lace motif that gives the shawl its distinctive appearance.

Materials and Specifications

The Chapel Falls Shawl is designed to showcase Valley Yarns Charlemont Hand-dyed yarn, a premium blend composed of 60% Fine Superwash Merino, 20% Mulberry Silk, and 20% Polyamide. Each 100-gram skein provides 439 yards of yardage. The pattern calls for one skein each of two colorways: Waterfall (Color A) and Lily Pond (Color B), allowing knitters to explore the interplay between two distinct hand-dyed hues.

Knitting is worked on US size 6 (4.00mm) needles or the size needed to achieve the specified gauge. The recommended gauge is 24 stitches over 4 inches in the stitch pattern after blocking. The cast-on requires 111 stitches, which represents a multiple of 12 stitches plus 3 additional stitches to balance the lace repeat.

Pattern Construction

The shawl is constructed using a repeating six-row sequence that creates the striping effect. Rows 2 through 7 form the core pattern repeat, with color changes occurring strategically to build subtle stripes before transitioning to a full block of the second color. The pattern continues until both skeins of yarn are exhausted, then all stitches are bound off. Finishing involves seaming in loose ends and blocking the shawl rigorously to fully develop the lace pattern and even out the fabric.